peter stein has previews of the 31st san francisco jewish film festival this week. a local writer gets a tv series with hbo. hear the star studded details and hear where locationally you can be an almost expert on indyasm i'm susan sikora and that's on bay area focus next.

welcome to the show, i'm susan sikora. barbara rose brooker, remember that name. she is a local writer who wrote her passion for antiagism into a page turning novel called the viagra diaries. it's about love and sex after 60. barbara may be poised now to become a household name. here is why. hbo wants to turn the viagra diaries into a tv series. here with me we welcome back

barbara rose brooker. congratulations. >> thank you. yai! >> you aren't fooling around here. it's funny because we referred to this and other people did too as "sex in the city" for boomers and that was not just so much a comparison. it's now turned out to be a prediction because tell them who is exec producing? >> i'm so excited and you have been so supportive. darren starr, who wrote "sex in the city" and the movie and a million other things is writing this series for this. i am so stoked on this. >> you should be. >> i feel so good. >> guy knows what he is doing. how did you get him? >> i didn't get to him. this is what happened. i believe in miracles and at any age. i wrote this little book as you know. nobody wanted the book because they said nobody is going to read about a 70-year-old annie applebaum. i self-published the book even though i have others in mainstream and so forth. the book went out there and next thing i know i get a phone call from two producers that say we love this book and want

to option it. they optioned it. then i have a daughter who is in the business. and she said, i'm going to bring it to aaron caplan who is this big huge manager there. he loved the book and he said i'm bringing it to hbo. they sold 2. they brought it to darin. he loved it. and it's like a dream come true. i couldn't believe it. >> he is on board. >> he has written the script. >> tell them because i'm dieing to say this. tell them who is going to star as main character and she is fine. >> she is all committed and signed and casted. goldie hawn. >> yea! >> you struck gold. >> i struck gold. >> do you have any other actors that are going to be part of it yet? or have they got than far? >> they are casting but don't discuss that with me yet. i don't know any of this yet because the pilot has to be made now. >> are you -- it you be on the set when this is all done? >> i won't be hands on as far

as input. but i'm allowed to go to the set. >> my gosh. when can we assume question turn on hbo and see promos for this. >> with god annointing boomers after 60 and everything goes smoothly, pilot pick up and all that, it will be next year. >> wow. i always said there is an audience out. there the people who cut their teeth on television that aren't going to believe it. you will show them. >> this is what i love about darin starr. he said i will put a new face on age between 60 and 75. it's going to be glamorous. >> i thought it's money waiting to be made. thel them just for those people who did not see any talk we did or other people we did with the book or borrowed it as my friends have, the viagra diaries. give them a one or two line. >> a one or two liner it's about annie apamle bm who is 70. she want it all. she wants love, sex, fame and fortune and a career in the

industry. that's a lot because at 70 they usually tell you to play bingo and go to assisted living and take a cooking class or get a real estate license. so this was new in that annie is not stereotypic pz and she has an fair with a guy and learns a lot or the book says a lot about men of a certain age, around the 60s, 70s and how they treat women and how they are out there dating or doing the right thing or being rude or what have you. >> especially she has an affair with a 74-year-old diamond dealer who has a fear of age. pocketful of viagra and cannot face the future in a new way. and so she has an affair with this emotionally uni vailable -- unavailable man. >> one of the things that readers will enjoy about the book is that it's set in san francisco. clear that the woman who wrote this knows the area.

know the territory for sure. it is set in san francisco but this will be taped in new york city. will the series be set in new york then -- oh, it's set in new york. >> it's set in new york. >> don't want to set it in san francisco. >> no, it's a new york. it's i guess very, very, very glamorous, upscale. i'm sure there will be visits to san francisco in the script, you know. that will be good. >> you are still based in san francisco. sounds like you will be flying back and forth. but mean time you also on the side here or on another front burner for you this is march on ageism. last time you were here we talked about it you had a first one in san francisco. you had a second one in l.a. and third one is slated to happen in san francisco in october. >> october 1. and it's the first age march in history and i always say a-g-e because people hear aids march. this is the first age march in history celebrate our real ages and help in ageism in this country. >> this is not a funds arer.

you buy a $10 t-shirt to get in and do it and not raising money and walking. what do you want to take away to be from this? >> the takeaway personally? the takeaway personally is i feel good just like we have gay pride. i feel good. i feel pride about who i am. and my new dreams and reinventing myself instead of walking around like cowering and feeling ashamed of age. we have an ugly face of age in our country because when i say my age people kind of pat me on the back and say, good for you, sweety. because i will be 75 in august and it used to hurt to tell the truth because i lied about it all the time but now i'm saying it because it's who we are. >> good for you! i want to hear more about this when something happens you have to break it here for sure. and the viagra diaries people can get a copy of that on amazon now. better get it soon because i have a funny feeling it will

reappear in a book store. anyway, barbara rose booker, we congratulate you and let you know you have a website for -- it's age march.com that's age march.com. do you have to sign up ahead of time? >> you can do both. preregistration is better. >> you won't get turned away and don't have to be 50 years old to march. >> no you can be 20. >> good to have you here. congratulations again. this is great. i will have a story line or to pitch to you. stay with us. more ahead.

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[♪...] >> i'm glad i did! welcome back. carol fleming is back and a san francisco based communication consultant who also volunteers her talent and time at the common wealth club. she has organized a summer series now underway in san francisco called india now. carol fleming, welcome back. >> thank you, i'm happy to be here. >> nice to have you here and india? interesting topic. interesting choice. why? why did you choose it. >> there are so many reasons to choose india and to now. first of all i'm embarrassed to talk about india because there are so many indias to say any one thing is very true for one portion and very untrue for another portion. so it's an incredibly rich and

colorful country with a huge history and a very exciting future which is just now really becoming evident to the world. >> you say also this country of contradictions and contrasts and i'm assuming because most of us think of india we think of poverty. we think of a lot of poverty but a lot of very smart, high- tech people that are doing the jobs over there when you call up you get somebody over there and not necessarily just to help you and those are the contrasts you are talking about. >> absolutely. if you go northern india, for example, those are where you get the colorful pictures of the wonderful colors and exotic religious practices, the huge poverty and the low literacy rate, maybe 18% in northern india. greatly contrasted with southern india which we have 100% literacy and then in the middle you have this vast intellectual oasis where they

are doing the high-tech and the great universities are there. so very different kinds of cultures. >> have you seen the interest in india spark or get bumpier? >> the slum dog millionaire is the one thing that most -- has touched most people. and as a matter of fact, one part of that we are having as a speaker on bollywood. you ended up with the great bole-wide routine at the train station. we have an imminent scholar on bollywood on the program to talk about that. >> okay, let's talk about some of the specifics because at some point it goes through the end of august. >> that's right. throughout the whole of august. >> you have a bunch of workshops here and by the way if you are looking around town to see what these are or can also look online and give you that website in a minute but these what you are looking for around town. however, give us an idea of some of the things you decided to put in here that you think

are so critical. >> certainly we have to focus on economics and india. because they play a crucial role in being a service industry because they had a jump on the english language they are able to interact and interface with american business and industry with their english skills. contrasted with china which is developing a manufacturing relationship with the rest of the world and is trying to catch up with english. so we have these two divergent ways that these great new emerging -- >> the economy is one area. what are the other area. >> agriculture is going through tremendous changes. in order to have the -- to be able to compete on a national market rather than the smaller areas. have a program on the muslims

of india. certainly a huge issue for many, many countries but especially for india as you know they have the pakistan was created to accommodate the muslims there though there are still muslims inside india and have very different kinds of status within the country. >> you program called wake up laughing, wise up loving. >> you can -- what is the name of it? it's a funny name. >> swamy somebody will do it. >> right. this is going to be a humorous program and i'm waiting to find out myself on what that's going to be. i don't know. i just have that wonderful title and name. i will be in the audience to find out. >> for people who are not part of the common wealth club and would like to dip their toes in the watter a little bit, there is a particular program or night you would suggest for a starter? >> susan, no. there isn't. it depends upon what your

particular interest is and i would urge you to scan the whole array of programs that we are offering because the beauty of these is that they are done by the different interest groups within the common wealth club of which i am the chair and i have 16 sub groups, business, health, psychology -- >> brait a lot of good minds together. >> i take the month of august as an opportunity to have all of my sub groups program on the same topic from their particular point of view. you get a very different kind of view of india, depending if you look at it from the viewpoint of health in india. business in india. natural resources. >> sounds like a sporgburg table of things you don't know what to eat first. >> something for everybody. >> sounds good. carol fleming thank you for being here and for more information for the august series on india now, you can go to 597, 6705 or common wealth

club.org. and look for india now all throughout the month of august. stay with us, more ahead.

the curtain goes up on the 31st be aial san francisco jewish film festival. take a look. >> hello. here to tell you about the fabulous san francisco jewish film festival. featuring new works from director sidney passover, spike

lee, and the latest film from -- why do they keep making these things? >> we aren't showing those movies. where is your script? >> i-um, left it on bart. >> here is more details we welcome back the executive director. good to have you here. this is our annual date. listen, i read in the press that you put out that after eight years of dynamic leadership this is your valedictory festival. you are leaving. >> that's a big word. this is my swan song year. it's like obama or two terms -- i was a film maker long before i was a film festival director and i do a lot of interviewing and other kinds of projects. so it's time for know come back to my own story telling but not before we are done with the 31st festivals if go back behind the lens. >> yeah, i think so. >> and most people know who have been in this market for

any length of time you know you are one of the producers of people are talking from this building. i love that shoasm anna rossburg, my favorites. the themes, one seems to have emerged when i was looking through the program, poland and the jews. >> i can talk about the trailer we saw, the -- that stars some of the audience -- >> not a polish doc. >> no. that's created by mike reese who is the producer and writer of the simpsons and has been with the simpson for 18 years. so mike is joining us for incredibly fun program called jews in twos -- toons and we will show three classic episodes of jewish cartoon characters including crusty the clown from simpson and an episode from south park called passion of the jew. these are amazing episodes iconic episodes of jewish characters or jewish themes and mike reece the producer of the simpsons is going to be sharing

some of his anecdotes from lives in the trenches. that's july 25 on monday. >> i'm glad you covered that and that by the way we should say in case we don't get to any more than that is a tribute to you. i know you too modest to say so. so now the themes, poland and the jews. why poland and the jews? >> interesting films bubble up both feature films as well as documentaries on poland's troubles and challenging and very now kind of revived relationship with its jewish population. not just historical films. we have contemporary documentaries as well. one special one is enter ps film called little rose which is espionage thriller like the lives of others. takes place in the 60s. not during the holocaust years and it's about the pernlgs that happened during the cold war of jewish intellectuals. really fascinating. we have a documentary called torn about a polish priest who discovers he has jewish roots and is true of thousands of

polls -- poles whose families changed religions because of the war time. and this polish priest who lives in israel wants to reclaim his jewish roots but not give up his priesthood. that's called torn. a number of really quiet -- >> let's look at clips. between two worlds, now this is from filmmakers in berkeley? >> yes. >> local folks. and the theme is who speaks for jews today. >> this is a contemporary documentary examining a few of the flash points in the last few years about american jewish relationships toward israel. >> let's take a look. it's called between two worlds. watch. >> on -- no sign of a cease- fire. israeli troops and hamas militants fought -- >> occupation, settlements, war, the bad news keeps coming. american supporters of israel are on the defensive with the publicity campaign to show the

good side. beaches, bars, prosperity, freedom. but the other reality keeps coming back. when i'm in jeerslam visiting my mom, it's not about the war of images. it's a place where people work, raise families, dream of a better future and grow old. i understand the desire to protect israel, even while i'm filled with fear and sadness about what the long occupation is doing there. it's an uneasy feeling, but i

wasn't to acknowledge not just the good, but also what troubles me in many other american and israeli jews. >> and that was going to have a panel -- >> that showing thursday july 28 at 5:30 at the castro. we will have a panel discussion after that film. deborah kauffman and allen smith the filmmakers will be there and an interesting folks talking about who speaks for jews today and what the values are of the new generation of young jews. next clip is mary lou. israel's answer to glee? >> this is a wonderful new actually it's a mini series that we are combining into one screening by the director who made the bubble and walk on water and a wonderful israeli fim maker and a drag musical. quite fun. >> sounds good already. let's take a look. it's called mary lou. ♪[ music ]

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you have been doing this now for a tremendous a organization to putting up a film festival together for sure. you have done it for eight years. you will go back and make some films. we will look for that you are a tv producer by trade. you are an artist and know how to tell stories. what is doing this work on this particular film festival done for you? >> oh, man. it's been such a privilege to sort of be able to scan the world of film. not just jewish film, but international film. documentaries, features, short films. to present an array every year that allows us to show the full die mngs not just of -- dimension of jewish life but the way each of us connect to identity and how we understand other people. there is politics involved. there is community relations. there is bringing -- it's putting on a big eevery year and what i'm particularly proud of over the past few years is the ssfjf our organization work

in the year of on-line media as well because now we got on-line shorts for free every month and beginning to explore that. >> you mentioned the word identity. has it changed your own perception of your own identity at all? >> it's complicated it i would say because each of us comes to our faith or religion or tribal identity or people identity with a certain set of assumptions and then see how the rest of the world both looks at you and represents itself and you say there is a piece of me there and a piece of me there and there. >> always a piece of you on this set. >> thank you and stay tuned. >> come back when you have a film to show us or just come back to chat. we love having you here. we will tell you the 31 san francisco jewish film festival runs july 321 to august -- july 31 to august 8. a couple of venues. castro and berkeley and san francisco and san rafael. for tickets and information call 415-621-5023 or visit

their website at sfjff.org. leave you with a look at festival's 100 voices. i'm susan sikora. thank you for watching. 4. ♪[ music ]